Dog Bites and the Word 'Intimacy'
by LhyRa.o6
Summary: Ruka gets super angry after Hotaru insulted a picture she took of him, saying he was intimate with dogs. He planned revenge and wasn't scared to use his loyal dogs to do his dirty work for him. And she believed he can't be intimate, the hag! one-shot.


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The Dogs and the Word Intimacy

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By: cirshelle20

She was a downright pain in the neck. He had hated it the day she did it. And never, never in all her photographing days did he send a dangerous assault of animals to stop her or anything.

Yet today she had gone too far.

Imai Hotaru was the worst.

Nogi Ruka had never been in the accompany of many dogs. Alice Academy's barn had too many barn animals. Rabbits, chickens, horses, pigs, cows…Oh, and of course the giant chick, Piyo. Usagi and Piyo were always there. There were dogs and cats in the barn, but far too few.

Ruka wanted to see for himself every breed of the dogs there are. Labradors, Chihuahuas, bulldogs, bloodhounds…He loved dogs as well, and sometimes, having a giant chick (even if it is mutated) and a little rabbit when you crave for a dog isn't at all satisfying.

He even dreamed of using dogs as messengers. For him, dogs are very, very dependable, and very loyal. It was a better friend, and if ever he proved that it could do as a really, really nice messenger he could boast it to Hotaru, for her mechanical turtle was really irritating. It irritated him the most and he reasoned he would never want mail delivered to him super slowly. What if it was an urgent message? Turtle mail, in Ruka's eyes was plain silly, and not to mention, ridiculously useless (he never voiced it to Hotaru, though).

Anyway, right now, he was surrounded by dogs. He didn't know how they got there, but Ruka guessed Natsume illegally smuggled them for him; he had forgotten he had voiced out his wishes in a very coveting way in front of Natsume. And so, possibly, Natsume took the time to look for dogs during his missions and have been taking care of the dogs ever since he brought them.

Ruka was still in his thoughts when a small Chihuahua licked his leg. He looked down and smiled. _'Such a cute thing,'_ he thought gleefully. And before Ruka knew it, something pushed him and he fell on the ground, spread-eagled.

"Ah," he said as he saw what had pushed. It was a large black Labrador, and it instantly licked his face. Several dogs followed, licking his face lovingly. _"Ruka! Ruka!"_ they chanted to him.

And then a **CLICK!** Ruka removed his dreamy expression and sat up hastily, looking around frantically. He saw the source grinning beside him.

"IMAI!!"

Ruka felt humiliated. When the picture got printed, he saw how incredulously ridiculous and embarrassing he looked in the picture.

"I look like some guy--"

"--being intimate and having interests in canine dogs…that drool you have just there, you see, falling from your lips; you must be very desperate, Nogi," said Hotaru in a thorough monotone as she snatched the picture from his hands.

Ruka turned pink and shot Hotaru a dirty look. "So you've got a dirty mind, I see," he hissed angrily. Hotaru's brows furrowed for a second, and she said dully, "This picture's getting all around campus, Nogi."

And then all hell breaks lose.

"I JUST HATE YOU, IMAI!!" he bellowed on her face.

What humiliated Ruka the most was how she described the picture. Being intimate with **dogs**?! Having interest in canine **dogs**?! Drool falling from his lips just because of the _bloody_ **dogs**?! Nogi Ruka, so desperate, so low, that he'd risk anything, even be intimate with **dogs**?! What did she take him for, a **dog**?! Does she think that he was too shy, too timid to actually be intimate with people that she thought he'd only be intimate with animals, with **dogs**?! Of all things, _**dogs**_!! Damn his Alice, damn his want to have dogs and learn their various breeds, damn the picture, damn his drool, be damned in everything!

Damn that Imai, damn her thirst for money, damn her wrong timings at the wrong places! What does she want from him?! Why does she enjoy making him suffer?! Why, if she wasn't a girl he would have had beaten the hell out of her! Damn her Alice and be damned her photographic skills! Damn everything about that terrible, cruel, unbearable little _witch_!

And so he kept cursing under his breath until he reached that little part of the Northern Forest where the dogs clustered. And amidst all his anger, which clouded more and more of his thoughts, he planned revenge.

The next day afternoon, Imai Hotaru got rushed to the clinic with a very bloody hand.

"Ruka," said Natsume heavily as they walked the grounds. "What happened?"

"What happened with what?" Ruka asked, confused.

"With Imai," said Natsume coolly. "I know you did something. Those dogs gave her a nasty bite. Dogs were always friendly with Imai, or so Mikan says."

Ruka looked at Natsume like he just said something unbelievable and then his brows crossed. "She deserved it," he said coldly. "And besides, I didn't tell them to bite her, I told them to ruin that photo she took of me."

"Well, apparently, she held on to the photo like it was her life, and all the dogs had decided to bite her hand off. Imai fired her baka gun, and the dogs got angrier. She got saved by Iinchou, who placed the dogs in some kind of illusion," said Natsume.

Ruka raised an eyebrow. "How do you know? And you never pay attention if anyone but Mikan or me or Aoi gets hurt or not."

"Well, if you're constantly bothered by loud wailings and teary narrations of the accident from the victim's best friend, wouldn't you want to do something?" came the reply.

Ruka ignored the grave news about Hotaru and walked ahead. Natsume stopped behind him abruptly. "Those dogs, for all I know, may or may not have been given shots. They were strays that I found just lying around. I don't even know if anyone owned them," he said as if he was proclaiming the weather for that day. Ruka spun sharply around to face him.

"The dogs have been sent somewhere outside the academy. Quickly got confiscated. They're searching for the culprit who brought those in--"

"Don't turn yourself in!" cried Ruka, looking aghast.

"I won't. Mikan already told me not to."

"You never were the type to obey people, except for Mikan I suppose," muttered Ruka teasingly.

"_The point is_," said Natsume, scowling at the teasing he received, "it will be Imai's decision whether to turn you in or not as the culprit who sent her the dogs. I'm sure she knows very well your motive."

And with that Natsume left.

Without a second thought, Ruka ran around the campus frantically, searching for every place he could find Imai. When at last he found her, he knelt down on the floor before her and sincerely said, "I'M SORRY, IMAI!"

Ruka waited, his head on the floor, waiting and waiting. "You can do anything to me! I can be your slave for as long as you want!" he added.

There was no reply. Ruka felt her kneel in front of him and prepared himself for whatever she would do. He was already imagining what Hotaru might ask him to do, or the torture he will have to bear as compensation for her, when he felt warm, soothing hands caress his head.

He looked up to see Hotaru, the ice queen, looking at him as emotionless as can be.

"D-Did the dogs really bite you? Did you ask…f-for an anti-rabies shot?" Ruka asked in a panic way.

"What are you panicking for?" asked Hotaru, her voice incredibly not monotonous, but somehow sad. She lowered her head. "In case you don't know, I didn't report you. I said I couldn't find a reason on why the dogs would attack me like that, and they thought that maybe they were just crazy strays."

"Are you alright now, then?" asked Ruka. He didn't know how Hotaru would be healed, or what were contained in the shots. He never got bitten by any animal before, and as long as he was near an animal no harm would ever happen to the people around it. He had never ordered animals to fight and hurt people (on the occasion he did that he was brainwashed and out of himself).

Ruka looked for Hotaru's injured hand and found it bandaged all over. He gently and carefully took it, shaking.

"I don't see why you should be troubled," said Hotaru in an unexpectedly warm way. "I thought I said I didn't report you. Are you panicking because the dogs are being thrown out, or because the photo might still be okay? I'm sorry about the dogs, but I'm proud to say that the photo got torn into shreds."

Ruka managed to give a goofy grin. He was too happy that he awkwardly wrapped Hotaru's waist with his arms and laid his head on her shoulder as he chuckled nervously. "Neither," he breathed.

He felt Hotaru tense a little in his grasp, and as he was about to let go, he heard her whisper in a tone very much unlike hers, "Sorry, Nogi."

He looked at Hotaru, confused. "What for?"

"I insulted you didn't I? If I hadn't gone too far with the photo I wouldn't have had gotten nasty dog bites from your dogs and I wouldn't have had gotten these stupid shots," said Hotaru, not facing him. After a moment she raised her head and smiled in a way Ruka had never seen her smile before, so calming and warm. By then he felt his heart rush to his throat, throbbing and beating fast like a savage animal desperate for freedom in a cage. "Anyway, what do you mean by neither?" said Hotaru, retrieving her smile and looking as dull as ever. She lowered her head a little (having Ruka stare at her as if he had only met her made her feel uncomfortable).

Ruka blushed and shook his head. "I really got angry at you for telling me that I was being intimate with dogs, Imai…" he started, looking pink, staring at the ground. "…but then you got nasty bites…Anger got the better of me…I'm…" Ruka blushed deeper, and he looked away from Hotaru as he rubbed the back of his neck. "…glad you're okay…" Somehow, saying the words took a lot from him.

Something sparked in Hotaru that made her as nasty as she was before. "You're angry because of that?" she said dully. "Childish! You're saying you haven't been intimate with anyone before? That you haven't been nicely showing your love to someone other than Hyuuga and Mikan? That you haven't showed extreme care to anyone other than those two before? I see now why you don't have a girlfriend, after all these years!"

Something snapped in Ruka as his temper rose. "I was worried about you! I cared when I heard the dogs that bit you were strays that I didn't know if they had been given shots or not! I was afraid to know you were in danger!" he blurted out continuously.

For someone as smart as Hotaru, she didn't pay the least bit of attention on Ruka's choice of words and didn't even take a hint at all. "That doesn't mean you were intimate with me!" she cried back at him angrily.

"You think I can't be intimate with anyone I love other than Mikan and Natsume, Imai?!" shouted Ruka fiercely, heat creeping up his cheeks. He wasn't thinking of his actions or words anymore. "I'll show you!"

and Ruka pulled Hotaru firmly, furiously towards him as he crashed his mouth angrily on hers. His kiss was far beyond gentle or loving, it was fierce, angry, and dominating. Midway in his kiss he realized what he was doing. Ruka stopped, his lips still on hers, but his eyes opening in a shocked way and saw Hotaru's eyes shocked as well. He pulled away slowly, unsure of what to do or what would happen next.

After a moment, Hotaru, who was very pink, composed herself and said quietly, "That wasn't intimate. That was terrible."

Ruka looked at Hotaru and laughed.

A few days later, Ruka courted Hotaru. It didn't take another hour for Hotaru to be his; he simply became hers, and her his when he showed exactly how intimate he can be. Some found Ruka hilarious, oftentimes for others giddy, on the occasions Ruka took a few hits from Hotaru's famous baka gun when he was being too overconfident and risked, despite himself, showing public displays of intimate affection. Nevertheless the couple were never seen away from each other since they became an item, and were regarded as a very loving and intimate couple.

Nogi Ruka and Imai Hotaru were satisfied and happy.they loved spending intimate times with each other. And it all started with hate, the photo, the dogs and their bites, and the word _intimacy_.


End file.
